News/Canada

Asia Bibi, pictured in Paris Feb. 26, 2020, is seeking political asylum in France less than a year after fleeing Pakistan for the safety of Canada. The Catholic woman spent nearly a decade on death row after she was falsely accused of blasphemy.

Asia Bibi seeks political asylum in France

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MANCHESTER, England -- Asia Bibi is seeking political asylum in France less than a year after fleeing her native Pakistan for the safety of Canada.

Solidarity banner leads thousands through downtown Toronto on Feb. 22 in a show of support for the Indigenous people protesting a B.C. gas pipeline.

Toronto protest sends message of solidarity

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Thousands of people who marched through downtown Toronto to Nathan Phillips Square Feb. 22 were not just protesting — they were making a spiritual response to Canada’s history of colonialism, said participant Liz Stone.

Delta Hospice Society is looking at legal and other options after the B.C. government announced it may take over the facility over the hospice’s refusal to allow assisted suicide on site.

B.C. Delta hospice losing government funding over assisted suicide

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VANCOUVER -- Delta Hospice Society president Angelina Ireland is “shocked and outraged” that the B.C. government will pull all funding from the hospice by 2021 because it doesn’t offer assisted suicide.

A supporter of the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s hereditary chiefs poses in Edmonton Feb. 19 at a railway blockade as part of protests against British Columbia’s Coastal GasLink pipeline.

‘Fundamental change’ needed

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OTTAWA -- Some Catholic organizations fear efforts of reconciliation with Canada’s First Nations are at risk in the wake of protests and blockades over a B.C. pipeline project.

Opponents of assisted suicide staged a “die-in” following a rally on Parliament Hill in 2016 prior to Bill C-41 passing that legalized euthanasia in Canada. A new bill creates an opening for those who want an assisted suicide but whose death is not “reasonably foreseeable.”

Two-tier euthanasia rules proposed

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OTTAWA -- The federal government’s proposed changes to assisted suicide will eliminate the requirement that a person’s death be reasonably foreseeable, but the government will not open up the system to the mentally ill at this time.

Jean Vanier, founder of the L’Arche communities, is pictured in 2008. The Canadian theologian noted for his charity was found to have engaged in “manipulative sexual relationships” with six women.

Vanier: The sad, awful truth

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TORONTO -- For the adults with disabilities who are the core members of L’Arche, news that Jean Vanier sexually abused six women over a 35-year period hit particularly hard.

Jean Vanier, founder of the L'Arche communities, is pictured in a May 2, 2014, photo.

Sex abuse allegations against Jean Vanier met with shock and condemnation

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The Catholic world in Canada is reeling with the news that Jean Vanier, founder of the ecumenical L'Arche communities that provide group homes and spiritual support for people with intellectual disabilities, used his status to have "manipulative" sexual relationships with at least six women.

Joan Carr reads to students at St. Gerard School in north Edmonton.

Her commitment was ‘second to none’

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EDMONTON -- Joan Carr’s Catholic faith was her compass. It guided her in everything she did.

Ding and Marichu Camales-Torrijos take a short outdoor break on the Diamond Princess.

Quarantined B.C. couple relying on faith

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VANCOUVER -- The morning routine hasn’t changed for Marichu and Ding Camales-Torrijos since they and all other passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise were quarantined following discovery of the coronavirus on board.

Quebec’s National Assembly has vowed to fight any challenges to its Bill 21 law.

Bill 21 challengers face a long battle

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OTTAWA -- Opponents of Quebec’s Bill 21 are hoping that Canada’s Supreme Court will take on a legal appeal to have the law suspended until arguments against the law are fully heard in Quebec court next fall. 

Sign sends a message at rally against assisted suicide in 2016 on Parliament Hill.

Psychotherapists wary of new guidelines

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Canadian psychotherapists expect to soon find themselves in the same position as physicians when it comes to so-called medical assistance in dying — or MAiD — as the government looks to expand access to legal, medically-induced suicide.

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